History
Literature Review & Bibliography

The quick answer is, “with an oscilloscope, an AVR microcontroller, and a digital to analog converter.” Ready to get going? Before we start, let's. It ran on an analog computer hooked up to an oscilloscope.

History
“Visitors Day” was an annual community event at Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL) in Upton, NY (today, BNL is co-managed by Stony Brook University). Each division was expected to prepare an exhibition that showcased its current research and development projects. In the fall of 1958, the Instrumentation Division planned to display their cutting-edge contributions to science, including a sodium iodide detector, a multi-channel pulse height analyzer, and the Chase-Higinbotham linear amplifier. However, anticipating that the display would not be dynamic enough to generate interest, William A. Higinbotham and his colleagues began to brainstorm about ways to draw attention to it.
Inspiration soon arrived; after reading a manual that accompanied a Donner analog computer, Higinbotham formulated the idea of designing an interactive game, as he thought “it might liven up the place to have a game that people could play, and which would convey the message that our scientific endeavors have relevance for society.” He envisioned a two dimensional tennis game displayed on a screen (oscilloscope), one in which two players could control the volleying action of a ball being struck over a net. He conceptualized and sketched the plans for Tennis for Two in a matter of hours. It was an instant hit with attendees of all ages. After the series of Visitors Days concluded in 1959, the game was dismantled.

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For Higinbotham this was just an isolated incident in a distinguished career as a physicist and electronics expert that also included time spent at Cornell University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), and Los Alamos National Laboratory. Recruited from MIT in 1945 to work on the Manhattan Project, he developed the timing circuits for the first atomic bomb and witnessed the test detonation in Alamogordo, New Mexico. The following year he helped found the Federation of Atomic (later, American) Scientists. A passionate advocate of nuclear non-proliferation, he worked tirelessly to educate government officials and the public about adapting atomic energy for peaceful purposes and implementing safeguards on weapons of mass destruction.

In an unpublished interview with Dr. Robert Crease, Professor of Philosophy at Stony Brook University and Historian of Brookhaven National Laboratory, Higinbotham reflected on the game:

'Historically, it [Tennis for Two] goes back to the fact that I had, during World War II, had spent a better part of three years at MIT in the Radiation Laboratory working on radar indicator sets - which are cathode ray tubes - and so I developed, and had asked for a number of circuits including circuits to integrate and differentiate wave forms, which were used in analog computers in those days. So I was using my old experience from way back then and my experience since then designing circuits - and we had, as it says in that report - the laboratory had several analog computers and they [inaudible] a book which tells you how to do a bouncing ball and some other things. And I look at it and say, well, obviously, with this machine I can fix it so instead of having it pre- programmed, I can fix it so people can control it, you know, what’s going on - so it was a great invention, if you want to call it that, and it didn’t strike me as the least bit novel. All the circuits I used were circuits that have been used by people before, except for putting these hand controls in - and a game which would go with that.'
Prior to Tennis for Two, there were few computer-based games. NIM and Chess were developed in 1951, followed by OXO or Noughts and Crosses in 1952. However, those games did not display motion or allow dual players to control the action. The October 1982 issue of Creative Computing generated much publicity and sparked lively debate when Higinbotham was credited as the inventor of the first video game. Many have argued against the validity of this claim, as “video” implies the use of a raster display device, e.g., a television. While the dialogue about the scope of the term “video game” continues, what is not disputed is the high level of technical ingenuity Higinbotham employed to design Tennis for Two.

Higinbotham’s computer game installed at BNL’s visitor’s day in 1958.
(Photograph courtesy of BNL)

Higinbotham's game with the title, “Computer Tennis”, at BNL's visitor's day in 1959.
(Photograph courtesy of BNL)

Cover of Creative Computing Video & Arcade Games, Vol. 1. No. 1 (Spring) 1983.
(Magazine from the WHGSC at SBU)

Literature Review & Bibliography

American Physical Society. Website: This Month in Physics History, October 1958: Physicist Invents First Video Game.
Baer, Ralph H. Videogames: In the Beginning. Springfield, NJ: Rolenta Press, 2005, pp. 16-17.
Brookhaven National Laboratory. Website: The First Video Game?

Burnham, Van (Ed). Supercade: A Visual History of the Videogame Age, 1971-1984. Cambridge: MIT Press, 2001,
p. 28, 60.
Chaplin, Heather and Ruby, Aaorn. Smartbomb: The Quest for Art, Entertainment, and Big Bucks in the Videogame Revolution. Chapel Hill: Algonquin Books, 2006, pp. 34-40, 46, 50, 203.
Donovan, Tristan. Replay: The History of VIdeo Games. East Sussex, England: Yellow Ant, 2010, pp. 8-9.
Herman, Leonard. Phoenix: The Fall and Rise of Videogames, 2nd Edition. Union, NJ: Rolenta Press, 1999, pp. 7,11.
Huntemann, Nina B. and Payne, Matthew Thomas (Eds.) Joystick Soldiers: The Politics of Play in Military Video Games. New York: Routledge, 2009, pp. 4-5.
Kent, Steven L. The Ultimate History of Video Games: The Story Behind the Craze that Touched our lives and changed the world. New York: Three River Press, 2001, p. 18.
Mäyrä, Frans. An Introduction to Game Studies: Games in Culture. London: Sage, 2008, pp. 40, 58.

Neilsen, Simon Egenfeldt, Smith, Jonas Heide, Tosca, Susana Pajares. UnderstandingVideogames: The Essential Introduction. London: Routeldge, 2008, pp. 50, 248.
Nitsche, Michael. Video Game Spaces: Image, Play, and Structure in 3D Worlds. Cambridge: MIT Press, 2009, p. 9.

Poole, Steven. Trigger Happy: Videogames and the Entertainment Revolution. New York: Arcade Publishing Inc., 2000, p. 15.
Whalen, Zach and Taylor, Laurie N. (Eds). Playing the Past: History and Nostalgia in Video Games. Nashville: Vanderbilt University Press, 2008, pp. 87, n2.

Wolf, Mark J.P. (Ed). The Medium of the Videogame. Austin: University of Texas Press, 2001, p. xi.

Wolf, Mark J. P. (Ed). The Video Game Explosion: A History From Pong to Playstation and Beyond. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 2008, pp. xvii, 32.
Click here for more results for 'Tennis for Two' in Google Books.

Tennis for Two (also known as Computer Tennis) is a sports video game, which simulates a game of tennis, and was one of the first games developed in the early history of video games. American physicist William Higinbotham designed the game in 1958 for display at the Brookhaven National Laboratory's annual public exhibition after learning that the government research institution's Donner Model 30 analog computer could simulate trajectories with wind resistance. He designed the game, displayed on an oscilloscope and played with two custom aluminum controllers, in a few hours, after which he and technician Robert V. Dvorak built it over three weeks. The game's visuals show a representation of a tennis court viewed from the side, and players adjust the angle of their shots with a knob on their controller and try to hit the ball over the net by pressing a button.

The game was very popular during the three-day exhibition, with players lining up to see the game, especially high school students. It was shown again the following year with a larger oscilloscope screen and a more complicated design that could simulate different gravity levels. It was then dismantled and largely forgotten until the late 1970s when Higinbotham testified in court about the game during lawsuits between Magnavox and Ralph H. Baer over video game patents. Since then, it has been celebrated as one of the earliest video games, and Brookhaven has made recreations of the original device. Under some definitions Tennis for Two is considered the first video game, as while it did not include any technological innovations over prior games, it was the first computer game to be created purely as an entertainment product rather than for academic research or commercial technology promotion.

Development[edit]

In 1958, American physicist William Higinbotham worked in the Brookhaven National Laboratory in Upton, New York, as the head of the instrumentation division. Higinbotham had a bachelor's degree in physics from Williams College, and had previously worked as a technician in the physics department at Cornell University while unsuccessfully pursuing a Ph.D. there. He served as the head of the electronics division of the Manhattan Project from 1943 to 1945, and began working at Brookhaven in 1947, which focused on researching peaceful uses of atomic power.^[2][3] Once a year, the government research facility held an exhibition for the public, with one day each for high school students, college students, and the general public. The exhibition largely consisted of tours and static displays, with some attempts at making displays with 'action', so for the 1958 exhibition Higinbotham decided to make an interactive display to entertain the visitors.^[2][3][4] While reading the instruction manual for one of Brookhaven's computers, a Donner Model 30 analog computer, he learned that the computer could calculate ballistic missile trajectories or a bouncing ball with wind resistance, and he decided to use this ability to form the foundation of a game.^[5][6] He later recalled his intentions were that 'it might liven up the place to have a game that people could play, and which could convey the message that our scientific endeavors have relevance for society.'^[7]

Higinbotham designed a game that used an oscilloscope to display the path of a simulated ball on a tennis court viewed from the side. The attached computer calculated the path of the ball and reversed its path when it hit the ground. The game also simulated the ball hitting the net if it did not achieve a high enough arc as well as changes in velocity due to drag from air resistance.^[7] Two aluminum controllers were attached to the computer, each consisting of a button and a knob. Pressing the button hit the ball, and turning a knob controlled the angle of the shot.^[4][8] Originally, Higinbotham considered having a second knob to control the velocity of the shot, but decided it would make the controller too complicated.^[3] The device was designed in a few hours and was assembled over three weeks with the help of technician Robert V. Dvorak.^[7] While most of the circuitry was based on vacuum tubes and relays, the circuits to display the graphics on the oscilloscope used transistors, then beginning to replace vacuum tubes in the electronics industry.^[3] Excluding the oscilloscope and controller, the game's circuitry approximately took up the space of a microwave oven.^[8]

Presentation[edit]

Tennis for Two was first shown on October 18, 1958.^[7] The game was rendered as a horizontal line, representing the tennis court, and a short vertical line in the center, representing the tennis net. The first player would press the button on their controller to send the ball, a point of light, over the net, and it would either hit the net, reach the other side of the court, or fly out of bounds. The second player could then hit the ball back with their controller while it was on their side, either before or after it bounced on the ground.^[3] Hundreds of visitors lined up to play the new game during its debut.^[8] Higinbotham claimed later that 'the high schoolers liked it best, you couldn't pull them away from it.'^[2] Due to the game's popularity, an upgraded version was shown the following year, with enhancements including a larger screen and different levels of simulated gravity.^[7] Players could set the game to simulate the gravity levels of the Moon or Jupiter.^[3] Higinbotham referred to the game as Tennis for Two, though a placard attached to the 1959 version titled it 'Computer Tennis'. After the 1959 exhibition, the game was dismantled so its components could be put to other uses.^[3]

Legacy[edit]

After being dismantled, Tennis for Two was largely forgotten. It remained virtually unknown until the late 1970s and early 1980s when Higinbotham was called on to testify in court cases for defendants sued by Magnavox over the video game patents of Ralph H. Baer.^[3] Having discovered the game, the lawyers for the defense unsuccessfully attempted to have the game declared prior art to invalidate Baer's patents on television video games, resulting in attention being given to the nearly 20-year-old game as possibly the first video game. It received further attention as the subject of articles in Creative Computing and Video Replay in 1982 and 1983 highlighting its possible status as the first video game; the editor of Creative Computing, David H. Ahl, had played Tennis for Two at Brookhaven in 1958, and dubbed Higinbotham the 'Grandfather of Video Games'.^[3][9][10] Higinbotham himself felt that the game was an obvious extension of the Donner Model 30's bouncing ball program and therefore not worthy of patenting or a large part of his legacy; he preferred to be remembered for his post-World War II nuclear non-proliferation work.^[9][11]

In 1997, a team at Brookhaven recreated the game for Brookhaven's 50th anniversary. The reconstruction took about three months, partially because the parts were not readily available. This recreation was also displayed at the 2008 celebration of the 50th Anniversary of the original game.^[8][12] The replica implemented an analog computer using solid-state operational amplifier devices instead of vacuum tubes as the original Donner Model 30 did. In 2010, it was replaced with a restored Donner Model 3400 analog computer.^[6] In 2011, Stony Brook University founded the William A. Higinbotham Game Studies Collection, dedicated to 'documenting the material culture of screen-based game media', and 'collecting and preserving the texts, ephemera, and artifacts that document the history and work of early game innovator and Brookhaven National Laboratory scientist William A. Higinbotham, who in 1958 invented the first interactive analog computer game, Tennis for Two.'^{[13][14][Note 1]}

Tennis for Two is considered under some definitions to be the first video game.^[3] Other candidates with stronger candidacies from a technological standpoint include the 1947 cathode-ray tube amusement device, the earliest known interactiveelectronic game, though it did not run on a computing device; the 1950 Bertie the Brain, the earliest known game to run on a computer, though it used light bulbs for a display; and OXO and a draughts game by Christopher Strachey in 1952, the earliest digital computer games to display visuals on an electronic screen. Tennis for Two, though it contained no technological developments to separate it from earlier games, has the distinction of being the earliest known computer game with visuals created purely for entertainment purposes.^{[16][17][18][19]} Prior games were created primarily for academic research purposes or to demonstrate the computing power of the underlying machine, with the exception of the non-computer based cathode-ray tube amusement device. This, therefore, makes Tennis for Two the first video game under some definitions from a philosophical viewpoint rather than a technical one and a distinctive moment in the early history of video games.^[16][17]

Notes[edit]

1. ^Stony Brook University's statement that Tennis for Two was 'the first interactive analog computer game' is likely correct depending on the definition of 'game' used, but only due to the 'analog computer' constraint; several games, including the 1950 Bertie the Brain and 1952 OXO, were previously developed for vacuum tube-based digital computers. One prior game run on an analog computer was Hutspiel, a 1955 war simulation game by the Operations Research Office, but the Goodyear Electronic Differential Analyzer computer had no display, and it is unclear if the computer ran the game or was only used to run requested calculations.^[15]

References[edit]

1. ^Hunter, William (2007-09-10). 'The Original Video Game'. The Dot Eaters. Retrieved 2018-11-25 – via YouTube.
2. ^ ^abcDonovan, Tristan (2010-04-20). Replay: The History of Video Games. Yellow Ant. pp. 1–9. ISBN978-0-9565072-0-4.
3. ^ ^abcdefghijSmith, Alexander (2014-01-28). 'Tennis Anyone?'. They Create Worlds. Archived from the original on 2015-12-25. Retrieved 2016-02-03.
4. ^ ^ab'Video Games—Did They Begin at Brookhaven?'. Office of Scientific and Technical Information. 1981. Archived from the original on 2015-11-03. Retrieved 2008-11-11.
5. ^Nowak, Peter (2008-10-15). 'Video games turn 50'. CBC News. Archived from the original on 2015-10-16. Retrieved 2009-03-23.
6. ^ ^abPeter, Takacs (2010-12-14). 'Resurrecting One of the World's 1st Video Games'. ScienceBlogs. Archived from the original on 2015-03-27. Retrieved 2012-07-16.
7. ^ ^abcdeLambert, Bruce (2008-11-07). 'Brookhaven Honors a Pioneer Video Game'. The New York Times. p. LI1. Retrieved 2009-03-23.
8. ^ ^abcdKalning, Kristin (2008-10-23). 'The anatomy of the first video game'. msnbc.com. NBC. Archived from the original on 2015-11-20. Retrieved 2016-02-03.
9. ^ ^abLovece, Frank (June 1983). 'The Honest-to-Goodness History of Home Video Games'. Video Review. Viare Publishing: 40. ISSN0196-8793. Retrieved 2013-09-13.
10. ^Anderson, John (Spring 1983). 'Who Really Invented The Video Game?'. Creative Computing. Ziff Davis. 1 (1): 8. Archived from the original on 2015-04-23. Retrieved 2016-02-03.
11. ^Chaplin, Heather; Ruby, Aaron (2005). Smartbomb: The Quest for Art, Entertainment, and Big Bucks in the Videogame Revolution. Algonquin Books. pp. 35–36. ISBN1-56512-346-8. Retrieved 2014-02-07.
12. ^Greenberg, Diane (2008-11-03). 'Celebrating 'Tennis for Two' With A Video Game Extravaganza' (Press release). Brookhaven National Laboratory. Archived from the original on 2015-11-19. Retrieved 2009-03-23.
13. ^'William A. Higinbotham Game Studies Collection at Stony Brook University'. William A. Higinbotham Game Studies Collection. Stony Brook University. 2013-11-01. Archived from the original on 2015-11-06. Retrieved 2016-02-03.
14. ^'Mission & Goals of the William A. Higinbotham Game Studies Collection'. William A. Higinbotham Game Studies Collection. Stony Brook University. 2013-11-01. Archived from the original on 2015-10-18. Retrieved 2016-02-03.
15. ^Harrison Jr., J. O. (1964). 'Computer-Aided Information Systems for Gaming'. Research Analysis Corporation.Cite journal requires journal= (help)
16. ^ ^abSmith, Alexander (2014-01-22). 'The Priesthood At Play: Computer Games in the 1950s'. They Create Worlds. Archived from the original on 2015-12-22. Retrieved 2015-12-18.
17. ^ ^abWolf, Mark J. P. (2012-08-16). Encyclopedia of Video Games: The Culture, Technology, and Art of Gaming. Greenwood Publishing Group. pp. XV–7. ISBN978-0-313-37936-9.
18. ^Kowert, Rachel; Quandt, Thorsten (2015-08-27). The Video Game Debate: Unravelling the Physical, Social, and Psychological Effects of Video Games. Routledge. p. 3. ISBN978-1-138-83163-6.
19. ^Hey, Tony; Pápay, Gyuri (2014-11-30). The Computing Universe: A Journey through a Revolution. Cambridge University Press. p. 174. ISBN978-0-521-15018-7.

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